1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coating composition for a recording material and to a process for producing a recording material using the same. More particularly, it relates to a coating composition used in the production of recording materials suited to aqueous ink jet recording and a process for producing such recording materials using the coating composition.
2. Discussion of the Background
Transfer recording materials used in ink jet printing or copying generally include a polyolefin resin film. However, an ink jet recording system using aqueous ink, an ink receiving layer must be provided because a polyolefin film, if used alone, repels aqueous ink and results in poor printing quality or requires a long time for the ink to dry. Conventional aqueous ink-receiving recording materials for ink jet recording have a substrate that is coated with a water-soluble or dispersible binder having dispersed therein inorganic fine powder (see JP-A-55-51583, JP-A-62-174182, JP-A-3-284978, and JP-A-7-89216, the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") or have a substrate coated with a porous layer of hydrated alumina (see JP-A-2-276670 and JP-A-2-276671).
Ideally, ink-absorbing particles should allow the ink to penetrate rapidly, which allows the ink to dry rapidly. Accordingly, porous particles having a large void content, such as porous silica powder and alumina sol, have been heretofore regarded as suitable. However, the state-of-the-art recording materials that have inorganic fine powder or alumina sol on their surfaces do not meet the current demand for high speed ink drying necessary with the improved recording speeds and advanced multicolor (six-color) printing systems of the latest ink jet recording equipment.